Gus Dean; GREE Racing plan to be terrific at Toledo Speedway

TOLEDO, Ohio – On the heels of a productive open test at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway late last week, Gus Dean (@GusDean) and his Win-Tron Racing team are energized heading to Toledo Speedway, site of Sunday’s Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care.

While the team’s 2018 season has been hampered with tough luck, the Bluffton, S.C.-native is upbeat about returning to the notable short track and earn his second top-10 finish of the season.

“I’m looking forward to some short track racing this weekend,” said Dean who sits eighth in the championship standings after four races. “Our No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet has a lot of speed this year, but we haven’t been able to put an exclamation point on a weekend with a finish we felt like we deserved. Hopefully, Toledo brings that for us.”

The 23-year-old Dean says his team has brought him cars capable of winning, but a last-lap crash at Daytona, a faulty alternator at Nashville, a pit-road incident at Salem and running out of gas in the series’ most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway have hindered his Mooresville, N.C.-based team for showcasing their true potential.

“It’s kinda like going back to basics this weekend, head down, fin up,” Dean explained. “We have a good team. But there’s a lot of good teams in ARCA this season. No room for error. I’d like to think we’ve used our bad luck early in the season and the rest is going to fall into our hands.

“I’ve always liked Toledo. I have two top-10 finishes the last two years, but this weekend, we won’t settle for anything less than a top-five. My crew chief Jamie Jones is very devoted to our program and he’s been working on our car vigorously getting it ready.

“It’s the same car we had at Salem and it was wicked fast before the pit road issue. We got caught up in an accident coming back through the field too, but the guys have fixed the car and I think we’re all eager to get to Toledo and see what we can do.”

Toledo is the start of a nine-week stretch for the series which ends at Chicagoland Speedway in late June. The South Carolinian says it’s important for his team to make some noise over the next two months to carry into the summer stretch.

“We need to get to Victory Lane,” added Dean. “It’s tough because every team is coming to the race track really dialed in, ourselves included. I like our chances though. We have some good race tracks coming up for me and I know we’re going to have some fast 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolets to contend with.

“GREE, Tradewinds Climate Systems and Baker Distributing have put a lot of effort into our program and we want to reward them with a checkered flag.”

Kevin Cywinski, team principal of Win-Tron Racing says his team is not only ready for Toledo, but this quickly approaching nine-week run.

“We’re ready,” said Cywinski. “We’ve used the downtime to really focus on making sure our cars are the best that they can be. We’ve put total concentration and effort into the No. 32 GREE Racing team and I think our decision to put all our focus on Gus will pay off huge for us as we get into the summer months.

“As for Toledo, we learned a lot last year and Gus is warming up to the track. Jamie (Jones) feels confident about his setup for the race and I hope it transfers into a great result for our team and sponsors.”

In 31 career ARCA Racing Series starts, Dean captured his first career victory in his second ever start at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway after starting a career-best second in Apr. 2016. Overall, Dean has eight top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.

The Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care (200 laps | 100 miles) is the fifth of 20 races on the 2018 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. Practice begins Sat., May 19 with an hour and a half practice session from 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. General Tire Pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 4:00 p.m. The race is set to take the green flag on Sun., May 20 shortly after 2:00 p.m. The event will be televised live on MAVTV, whileARCARacing.com will stream live timing and scoring throughout the entire weekend festivities. All times are local (Eastern).